Antidepressants
by SkullThread
Summary: Rachel decides to make a video for the Sundance Film Festival's "Life in a Day". She gets a grumpy Nico to help her, and they both answer the questions: What do you love? What do you fear? What makes you laugh? What do you have in your pockets?


**Originally I wrote a story with Percy and an OC, but then I wasn't happy with it. Maybe one day I'll post it, and I'll feel ashamed that I wrote it. But I'm not in that mood today. So I wrote a different one with Nico and Rachel. I like this one better for a number of reasons, mostly because it's shorter, but I'm still not completely happy with it. Hmmm…. I don't know why though…**

**Anyway, this is the first time I've wrote these two, so that **_**could**_** be where my unease is coming from.**

**This is about Nico and Rachel making a video for the Sundance Film Festival on July 24 2010 (tomorrow) and answering the necessary questions that the video must include.**

**Enjoy.**

_**st**_

Nico is not really depressed, not really.

Sure you can talk about his black clothes, his permanent scowl, his badass attitude, and the lasting aura of death that seems to radiate from his skin, but Nico isn't a depressed person. He just tends to deal with a lot of depressing people. With his father being the lord of the dead he does have a bit of an unwanted and untrue rumor following his every move.

Some people thought that maybe he could give them a hand and help them out with their business in the Underworld. So some days he has to handle people, dead and alive, trying to bargain him.

"Please, please, if I die I need you to bring me back so that I can stop…"

"If you get me out of death I'll give you a year of waiting on your every need…"

"Can you get my little sister out? She died last year; I miss her so much…"

He didn't need to help them. They've done nothing for him. Even if they did do something for him, why would they expect him to do something about their problems? It's not his problem. And they don't really care about how draining summoning the dead can be.

See? Not really depressed. Just dealing with depressing people and topics.

Nico had finished breakfast and was enjoying walking by himself when someone shook a rattling noisy object in his ear. He flinched and grabbed at the object. He missed and turned to see Rachel.

"Hey, Nico," she said in a happy greeting voice.

"Hi," he said looking up at her.

"I brought you these." She held up the rattling bottle.

He narrowed his eyes at the foreign item. "What is it?"

"Antidepressants."

Nico scowled ay Rachel's face and snapped, "I'm not depressed."

Rachel raised an eyebrow skeptically. She smirked and put them into a bag that was slung over her shoulder. She traded the bottle for a handheld camera. Holding it up she asked, "Can you help me with something?"

"No."

Glad that that conversation was over with, Nico turned to restart his walk but Rachel stepped in front of him and kept talking, this time with more urgency in her voice.

"Please? I only have today," Rachel said as she batted her green eyes at him.

Nico looked away to avoid blushing. After a moment he cleared his throat and mumbled, "What does helping you with _something_ mean exactly?"

Rachel smiled and grabbed him by his hand, guiding him farther into the forest. They walked for awhile in and out of the interrupted sunlight, before finally stopping in a spot Rachel declared perfect. Nico looked around. The space seemed to resemble the area they started in flawlessly.

His annoyance in the fact was cut short when she handed him the camera.

Nico stared at the camera, and then slowly glanced up at Rachel waiting for clarification on what he was to do with it.

"You know the Sundance Film Festival?" Rachel explained, "They're doing a project called _Life in a Day. _Basicallytons of people all over the world are making a video today. Then the editors and producers and directors are going to pick the cool videos and put them together in one big movie.

"So, I need you to answer a few questions on camera, and then I'll answer them. Okay? See? Harmless," Rachel said. She added, "Oh, and you can't talk about the gods and all that. But it's cool if you say that we're at camp."

Nico hesitated.

"Please?" She pressed, "Please?"

Nico let out a low breath.

"Fine."

Rachel rejoiced momentarily. When she finished the camera was up to her eye and a smile was plastered to her face.

"Ready?"

He rolled his eyes. "Sure."

The little red light appeared on the camera beside the lens. Suddenly Nico felt trapped. He swallowed and looked at Rachel.

"Nico tell the camera where we are," she prompted.

"Umm…" he swallowed again, "We're at camp…. because it's summer." He mentally slapped himself. How pathetic was he?

"Do you want me to go first?" Rachel asked softly.

That snapped Nico out of his nervous state of mind. No way was Rachel going to baby him. Even if he was acting like a baby, there was a camera here and he wasn't going to be caught on tape being shy and nervous because that would be embarrassing.

"No," Nico said, "Now what? You said questions."

"First question!" She announced just as the wind took up and blew leaves around the two, "What do you love?"

Nico gave her a look.

"Come on," she said.

Nico just continued to give her, and now the camera, unbelieving stares. He sighed and scratched his head.

"You have to think about it?" Rachel snorted.

Nico glared at her, making her zip her lip fast.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go first?" Rachel whispered after another awkward pause.

"No!" he exclaimed, "I-I love things. You don't need to jump in front of me while…. I'm organizing a list of many…things that I love in my head….so…."

Rachel waited, but he could see that he was running out of time to go first. As a reaction he said, "I love my sister. Bianca, I love her. There, okay?" he scowled to hide his ever growing embarrassment, "Next question."

"What do you fear?"

"I'm not comfortable doing this," Nico grumbled.

Rachel just laughed and held the camera out for him to take. He reluctantly took it and held it up so that Rachel was now in the shot instead of him. She smiled easily at the camera and tucked red hair behind her ear as if to right herself. She said, "Well, Nico, _I_ love art. And I love camp, especially since last summer. When we renovated with more cabins. Don't you think so Nico?"

Nico almost smiled. "Yes the new cabins are quite appreciated," he said quietly.

"There's also an increase in campers, switch is always good."

Nico regretted his teeth, "Sure."

"Okay, next question. What do I fear?" Rachel thought for a moment, then without stopping herself she said, "Monsters. Next question. What makes me laugh?"

Nico laughed.

Rachel raised her eyebrows at him in mock surprise. "Is this Nico di Angelo laughing? And here I thought you were depressed."

"Answer the next question," Nico growled.

"Okay, ummm," Rachel said, taking her time, "I laugh at people who get in their cars and start driving, then realize that they left their Starbucks on the roof while fumbling with their keys to open the car. I laugh when Percy and Annabeth start fighting, because it's almost always over the stupidest things in the world. I laugh when my instructor here at camp recites one of his poems. You know the everyday things."

That made Nico smile. But only a little.

"Okay, last question." Rachel looked at the back of her hand at some smudged writing. "What do you have in your pockets? Is there any story behind the object?"

Rachel shoved her hands in her pockets, front and back, and pulled out nothing. She shrugged at the camera. "Nico your turn."

He handed the camera back to her. He stated, "I'm not scared of anything. So what makes-"

"Well you already answered what makes you laugh. Me. So we can move on." Before Nico could protest, she recited the next question loudly, "What do you have in your pockets? Is there a story behind any of the items?"

Nico rolled his eyes and decided against fighting with her over answering one of his questions. He took out the only object in his pockets from the front of his jeans. In his hand he held a straw wrapper with yellow Ms placed in a rotating pattern around the crumpled paper.

"Any story behind that _interesting _McDonalds straw wrapper, Nico?" Rachel asked, and zoomed in on the paper in his hand. Then she said, "Wait. How would you have that? We've been at camp for 3 weeks.

"Ew. Have you washed those jeans since camp started?"

Nico's face turned red. He jumped to defend himself. "What about you? Look at your jeans! They've got a billion holes in them!"

"Yes, but _they_ are clean."

Nico ran a hand through his hair. He felt a little on the spot here. Who was going to see this video again?

"You haven't washed them at all….Is it because you're too depressed?"

Nico glared at her again.

"Alright moving on. Nico, are you going to tell the camera what you fear? Or will I have to end the video leaving people in suspense?" Rachel said. "It'll be a cliffhanger to remember."

Nico gave her a skeptical look.

He drew in a deep breath, smelling the swirling scent of the forest. "Drowning. I'm afraid of drowning." Nico regretted saying it, but it felt good to say it nonetheless.

A smile spread its way across Rachel's face. "Okay. Then that's a wrap." She pressed a button and the red light beside the lens disappeared.

"…."

"…."

"Are you sure you don't want these antidepressants? I mean what am I gonna do with all of them?"

_**st**_

**Maybe it was too short. Maybe that was it. Well I wanted to get something out there before the 24 of July.**

**I am not making a video. But you should! Yes you! Person I don't know!**

**I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians (I will someday though, just you wait), I do not own the Sundance Film Festival.**

**I also don't own McDonalds, but that should be obvious, if I did I won't be typing a PJO story while babysitting. I'd be swimming in money and lawsuits.**

**SkullThread**


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